Queensland Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Strategic Plan, 2018

Queensland Mental Health Commission, QLD

What was this project about?

The Queensland Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Strategic Plan 2014-2019 includes a shared commitment to facilitate the active engagement of individuals, families and carers across all levels of policy, legislation, planning and program design, service delivery and evaluation. The QMHC sought the services of a specialist engagement professional to:

  1. Assist in the planning of the state-wide consultations
  2. The facilitation of a series of community forums and roundtables throughout Queensland, and
  3. Additional professional advice or peer review services of the communication and planned engagement processes.

What we need to do

Engagement Plus was contracted to oversee the design and implementation of the facilitated engagement sessions throughout Queensland.  In total there were fourteen Forums, five Roundtables and a Lived Experience Forum facilitated over four months.

Integral to the engagement objectives was the need for Forum and Roundtable participants to absorb a large amount of material before contributing to the review process.  The discussion topics were sensitive in nature and more complex when half of the Forums were dedicated to people with lived experience, their families and carers.

Engagement Plus facilitated the workshops with the following objectives:

Obtain feedback regarding actions which are being taken and which need to be taken to:

  • Improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders
  • Prevent and reduce the impact of mental illness
  • Prevent and reduce the impact of problematic alcohol and other drug use
  • Prevent and reduce the impact of suicide.

Seeks the views and experience of people with a lived experience, their families, carers and support people regarding how to improve and increase engagement in:

  • Policy development
  • Program management and evaluation
  • Service delivery

What was achieved

Hundreds of people, service providers and academics contributed to the statewide review engagement forums through a series of methods; individual submissions, world café, carousel activities, online methods and social media.  Graphic illustrators were used for some of the Forums.

The outcomes of the forums and roundtables highlighted priority areas for action that were needed across different Queensland government departments.